Play Aadu Puli Aattam (ஆடுபுலி ஆட்டம்) on Parlor Games

Aadu Puli Aattam (ஆடுபுலி ஆட்டம்) is a traditional 2-player hunting strategy board game from India, popular in Tamil Nadu. You can now play this game from your browser with a friend, or against the computer. Head over to Parlor Games to try this classic game.

One player controls 3 tigers (which all start at the apex triangle of the board), and the other player controls 15 goats (all are off the board, and placed one by one). The aim of the goats is to immobilize the tigers by surrounding them. The tigers aim to hunt the goats, capturing a goat by jumping over an adjacent goat and landing on an empty spot right beyond the goat. The hunt occurs in a straight line. The tiger player wins if 5 goats have been captured.

In the picture above, it is your (Katara's) turn next, shown by the yellow highlight, and you are controlling the tigers. Your most advantageous move is to use the topmost tiger to jump over either of the goats that are below it, and capture them. The computer is controlling the goats.

Gameplay

For the first 15 moves of the player controlling the goats, he places exactly one goat on the board. Once all 15 goats are placed, the goats can move by exactly one square.

On every move, the tiger player either

1. Moves a tiger to an adjacent empty spot.
2. Jumps over an adjacent goat to land on an empty spot that is next adjacent in the straight line (lines are drawn on the board) connecting the tiger and goat. The goat that is jumped over is "captured", and removed from the board.

For a full description of the rules, and hints on strategy, read the Rules and Strategy page.

Playing against the Computer

There are three levels of computer player (Novice/Normal/Expert), with Normal being the default. If you want a really easy game, pick Novice in the game creation page. 

If you have made at least 30 moves in the game, and neither player has won, you can chose to draw the game by "rematch", which will start a new game with the player roles reversed (goat player becomes tiger player and vice versa).

Play Brainvita on Parlor Games

Now you can play Brainvita on Parlor Games. This single player game is also known as a Peg Solitaire. You start with a 33 peg grid (see below) with all but the center hole filled with marbles. In each move, the player jumps one marble over another to land on an empty peg, removing the marble that is jumped over from the board. You can only jump up, down, left or right. Diagonal jumps are not allowed. The game ends when there are no moves possible. The lower the number of marbles that are left on the board, the better your score.

Brainvita starting board position

While it is easy to finish with 3-4 marbles, it is much harder to end up with just 2, or one! If you are having trouble figuring out how, start from the empty board position and click on the computer icon below the board to have the computer play the entire game!  

If you have made some moves, and are wondering which move will work best, click on the hint (light bulb) icon to have the computer make a single move. The computer uses brute-force to attempt the solution (within a time constraint) so depending upon the board position, it may not always end up with the best answer. See here for additional information.

Happy puzzle solving!

Tic-Tac-Toe

You can play Tic-tac-toe on parlor-games, either with a friend, or against the computer. Tic-Tac-Toe is a game for two players, played on a 3x3 grid. The players take turns filling in one square in the grid with their token (X and O). The player using the X token makes the first move. If any player manages to fill 3 squares in a straight line, he wins. The three tokens can be either be in a line that is horizontal, vertical or diagonal. If all the squares are filled without either player managing 3 in a row, the game ends in a draw.

Below is a sample tic-tac-toe game. It is Aang's turn next, and he can win in this move by filling the middle column of the bottom row with "X".

If you chose to play against the computer, you can toggle the level of difficulty between NOVICE/NORMAL/EXPERT. It is still possible to beat the computer on EXPERT, as it still looks only one move ahead.

When the game ends, you can chose rematch to start a new game. The new game starts with the tokens exchanged, so if you had gone first playing "X", you will be the second player playing "O" in the new game. The game keeps a running score: Wins score 2 points, and draws score 1 point to each player.

For a good overview of tic-tac-toe strategy, see the wikipedia article.